Monthly Archive: October 2012

The vice presidential debate is in the books. We’ve got one fact check project in the works from the Biden-Ryan debate, but the research on the project has brought to the fore the need for a standardized reference style. Once that’s ironed out it will streamline the publishing process on projects that feature journal-style references that also happen to be…Read more

Obama campaign video: “AARP says (Romney’s plan) ‘would undermine … Medicare.’” Overview An October 9 Obama campaign video presents the AARP as saying the Romney/Ryan premium support “voucher” system “would undermine … Medicare.” The Facts The campaign video makes a series of claims about the Romney “voucher system” proposal before using a partial quotation from the AARP. The…Read more

President Obama: “(Congressman Ryan) put forward a plan that would let Governor Romney pay less than 1 percent in taxes each year.” Overview President Obama made an accurate statement about the budget proposal vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan made in 2010. However, Ryan has since updated his tax reform proposal and it no longer would allow Romney to pay less…Read more

I’ve blogged in the past that the recent trend for journalists to engage in political fact checking amounts to a type of power play. A guest column by Mike Deupree in Iowa’s The Register yesterday helped inspire me to sharpen the point. “At some point,” writes Deupree, “some journalists — probably frustrated because readers weren’t making the decisions the journalists…Read more

Vice president Joe Biden: “President Obama has increased the benefits available to people on Medicare today by the action he took.” Overview During a Sept. 28 campaign stop in South Florida, Vice President Joe Biden played up new Medicare benefits under the Affordable Care Act while omitting mention that the ACA has features that may restrict seniors’ ability to access…Read more

President Obama: “I haven’t raised taxes.” Overview On the CBS program “60 Minutes” aired on Sept. 23, President Obama said “I haven’t raised taxes” as part of his defense against Mitt Romney’s attacks on his economic policies. Justifying the statement appears difficult. The Facts Mr. Obama’s statement occurred during the following exchange with CBS interviewer Steve Kroft: KROFT:…Read more

Journalists trend ideologically left. That’s just a fact. In findings likely to fuel the raging debate over the issue of media bias, a new book concludes that the nation’s journalists have moved a bit to the right since the 1990s, but are still considerably more liberal than the general public. This political snapshot of the media comes from the…Read more

Mitt Romney: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what … Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax.” Overview Many mainstream news accounts, including fact checks, based interpretations on questionable assumptions about what Mitt Romney was saying during a private talk at a fundraising event. Fact checkers ended up fact checking…Read more